The 2026 Dallas Cowboys began their season with a loss that made things feel like 2025 all over again, for an abundance of reasons, and really not many of them good. The last loss of last season was at MetLife Stadium to the New York Giants, and now this new season began with a season-opening loss at the Giants for the first time since 2016 – Dak Prescott’s first career start.
This Sunday night marked the start of year number 11 for Prescott, and it took just four quarters for the vibe to feel like
Dallas still has a mountain’s worth of work to do to make this a contending team around their veteran quarterback.
Prescott led two touchdown drives for the Cowboys in the second half against the Giants, but it was not enough to keep this game from going in the ever-growing stack of recent Prescott starts where the defense couldn’t do enough to make it matter. Those two possessions were the only ones the Cowboys offense got in the second half, as the defense gave up touchdown drives of 12 and 13 plays, and then allowed the Giants to run out the final 5:21 of game time up by eight.
The Giants won the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, shortened the game brilliantly, and put head coach John Harbaugh’s new culture to the test against that of Brian Schottenheimer and the Cowboys. In the end, the Giants became the second straight division rival to hand the Cowboys a road loss on Sunday Night Football in week one, with their young core of players all smiles about it as they sent the Cowboys home 0-1.
There’s a whole lot to process about this loss for the Cowboys, so let’s get right to some notes on the 28-20 Giants win.
Dubbing themselves the “greatest offense there is” in the offseason, the Cowboys put this to the test on the very first possession of the game, running out a cast of starters that for the most part did not play a single snap in the preseason.
The result of trying to knock off this rust in real time under the lights was a three and out, assisted by an expedited review that turned a George Pickens slant route from a first down into fourth and inches. The Cowboys flirted with going for it in this spot, but ultimately took the delay of game and punted, a decision that would linger all night as it became a limited possession game.
To make matters worse, the Giants went right down the field to open the scoring with a Cam Skattebo rushing touchdown from three yards out. The Cowboys defensive woes in setting the edge from the preseason absolutely carried over to this opener. On this play, linebackers Demarvion Overshown and Rashan Gary were both blown off the ball and never came close to Skattebo who walked in untouched off left tackle.
This sequence was bad for Dallas to say the least, but a similar turn of events where the Cowboys were outcoached near the end of the first half may have went the longest way in making this a deflating loss.
One thing the Cowboys defense did a nice job of on the night was punch the ball out, but they only recovered one of four forced fumbles. Just before halftime, the Cowboys had the ball on Shavon Revel’s fumble recovery, forced by Quinnen Williams in pursuit, and faced a 3rd-and-5 in their own territory.
Unlike on the game’s very first drive, this time the Cowboys put trust in their offense by calling a timeout and stopping the clock before the third-down attempt, staring down leaving the Giants plenty of time if they did not convert.
Out of the timeout, the Giants put their all-out pass rush package on the field, and the Cowboys were not ready for it. Not only did New York get pressure on Prescott, but the route concept never stood a chance for Dallas. Both CeeDee Lamb and Jake Ferguson had leverage against their defenders off the snap, but neither were coming back to the ball as Prescott escaped the pocket either. Dak’s errant pass was picked off with a sliding catch on the sideline by safety Jevon Holland, creating a disastrous sequence for the Cowboys before the half.
After Holland’s interception, the Giants faced a third down for themselves, even more of an obvious passing situation than the Cowboys just had with nine yards to go. Unfortunately, this became another huge coaching win and swing in momentum against the Cowboys though. Instead of getting pressure on Jaxson Dart like the Giants did Prescott, the Cowboys defense dropped edge rusher Donovan Ezeiruaku into coverage to try and be underneath a throw to Malik Nabers. The second-year pass rusher could not do so in time, Nabers made the catch to move the chains, and three plays later Isaiah Likely was in the end zone for a wide open touchdown and Giants 14-7 lead.
In our keys to the game prior to kickoff about what to watch for if the Cowboys were going to be successful in primetime, we highlighted Jake Ferguson getting involved in the passing game as something that could really get Dallas going. Instead, it was Likely, a carryover from the Ravens that Harbaugh brought with him to New Jersey, that stole the show as the best tight end in this matchup.
Likely scored a second straight touchdown coming out of the locker room to start the second half, on a drive where the Cowboys defense couldn’t even get the Giants into a third-down look. The Cowboys were now desperately chasing this game down 21-7, and ran out of time along with toughness defensively to make the stops needed.
This was a bad night all around for the Cowboys. They were outcoached in a lot of phases, they couldn’t hold up physically on defense, they completed just 10 of 18 attempts to their “big three” receivers, they didn’t have a reception longer than 17 yards all night, and they put themselves in an early hole with a gauntlet of tough teams ahead.
On a record-breaking Sunday for points scored around the league for a week one slate, the Cowboys tried-and-true method of finding a way to make Prescott the better quarterback in a game against division rivals fell apart completely at the hands of an ultra-confident year two starter in Dart, and a complete Giants team with a whole new attitude under Harbaugh.
The Cowboys will have scheme, culture, and injury concerns to answer to as they try to turn the page and prep for old friend Dan Quinn and the equally-desperate Commanders, also off a division loss, coming to Arlington next Sunday.
The Cowboys are 0-1 in the win/loss column but also winless in the “proving anything is really different” column after 60 minutes of this season.
